Halation

halation uhrmazd.jpg

An artist's depiction of halation, using Uhrmazd as the subject.

"Halation" is the Middish Common term for a sort of "sixth sense" that some humanoids have to detect divine beings in their presence, for example Material Gods or Duskscape Regents. Reality seems to warp strangely around the head of any divine being, perceivable only faintly and out of the corner of the eye, but nonetheless impossible to miss.

Halation is known to occur in several ways. Some mortals—sometimes entire regions or planes—have the ability naturally. Some cultures have monastic orders that learn to see halation through mental cultivation, some have divine magic able to achieve the state, sometimes permanently.

The most important effect of having this sense is it acts as a "great equalizer", drastically reducing the ability of the gods to take advantage of mortals against their will, and putting mortal-divine politics on more even terms.

Planes

Most mortals born on Eridún, Cymede, Nitoxis, Waking Materia, and several more minor planes possess the sight paragenetically. Nearly all cultures on these planes have folklore around halation.

Folklore

Folklore around halation varies substantially between societies where it is known.

Waking Materia

It is whispered in hidden-away places that the forever-branching halls of Liminos—home of the Goddess of Fate, Shauku—is actually her prison, and furthermore that her beloved former goddess, Tallari, is the gaoler. Her crimes vary from region to region, Tallarite school to Tallarite church.

The Juran Order of the Sphinx believes Shennuvriex Shauku—in her elder years an archmage of immense power—sought revenge against the gods. She snuck into her divine matron's sanctum and stole knowledge of a forbidden ritual that gave all Material mortals hereon-born a humble but world-changing ability: to recognize gods in their presence, no matter their appearance of means of hiding. The archmage completed the ritual, resulting in halation. This would drastically reduce the ability of the gods to take advantage of mortals against their will, noble cause or no.

This, however, does not exclude the Duskscape Regents—even elder beings like Tallari—and thus the ritual was also an act of religious treason. Tallari sent Shauku to Liminos, perhaps to force her to look on the fabric of fate, realize its intricate fragility in the hands of an archmage bent on revenge.